Favorite Schools

Favorite Teams

Greater New Orleans

Change Region

comments

David Vitter urges American response in Syria

david-vitter-flag.jpg

U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., urged the Obama administration to intervene in Syria on Tuesday, but not if that meant putting American troops on the ground.
(Brett Duke, NOLA.com | Times-Picayune archive)

U.S. Sen. David Vitter said Tuesday he thinks the international community should respond to the Syrian regime's use of chemical weapons against rebel fighters and civilians, but would not support direct intervention by the U.S. military.

During a speech to the Chamber of Commerce of East Baton Rouge Parish, Vitter, R-La., touched on a number of issues but took time before and after the meeting to express his concern over a potential military intervention looming in Syria.

"It's obviously very, very serious," Vitter said, referring to evidence that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad authorized the use of chemical weapons against rebel fighters, that activists say also killed hundreds of civilians, outside of the capital city of Damascus last week.

"I certainly agree with (Secretary of State) John Kerry -- I don't say that a lot -- but I agree with John Kerry that the use of chemical weapons there and other abuses there are deplorable," he said.

"The community of civilized nations should do something about it. I don't think that should translate to American boots on the ground."

The United States is considering military options against the Syrian regime, White House Spokesman Jay Carney said Tuesday. But he insisted the goal of any intervention would not be to impose regime change by ousting Assad. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said he was presenting the president with multiple military options, one of which would be a series of cruise-missile strikes from U.S. vessels in the Mediterranean.

After the event, Vitter said he didn't know what an American response
should or would look like, but he made clear he supported "the world community and
the United States taking action."

Also on Tuesday, Vitter discussed an ongoing fight in the U.S. Senate to keep flood insurance premiums from undergoing dramatic increases for people living in especially flood-prone areas.

The original federal flood insurance program, passed in 1968, was meant to provide affordable insurance for those living in high-risk areas. Re-authorized by Biggert-Waters last year, new provisions in the program are threatening to levy dramatic rate increases on some Louisiana residents.

Vitter struck a balance on the issue when asked whether he supported federal government involvement in flood insurance.

"Yes, I want to maximize private sector coverage," he said. "But if we had no federal program, there would be whole lot of people in Louisiana who would not be covered, a whole lot of folks who would never afford coverage under a private sector program."

Vitter also had kind words for Common Core, a set of educational standards worked out by a consortium of states including Louisiana. The standards have come under increasing fire recently by conservative critics who say they are an attempt by the federal government to impose a nationwide curriculum.

"I think it makes all the sense in the world to have objective standards that we hold our teachers and students accountable to and standards that we can usefully compare our standards to in other states," Vitter said.

"What I'm not for is Washington or the federal government or the U.S. Department of Education driving the school bus and telling us exactly what our curriculum should be. So, I think we can do the former in the tradition of local and state control of education and not have it turn into more federalization."

On the Affordable Care Act, also known as ObamaCare, Vitter struck much the same chord that he has in the past, saying he is working to defund, repeal and replace the law without resorting to a shutdown of the federal government.

What we need is "a government funding bill that simply does not fund ObamaCare," Vitter told the press after his speech. "The goal is not to shut down the government. The goal is to defund ObamaCare."

Vitter also reiterated his intention not to back a candidate in the special election on Oct. 19 to replace outgoing U.S. Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-Quitman. The race was triggered when Alexander announced on Aug. 6 he would be joining Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration and has been beset by widespread allegations of election rigging.

On the fight to unseat Louisiana's senior senator Mary Landrieu, a Democrat, Vitter was anything but hands-off. While Louisiana wasn't a battleground state in 2012, he said Baton Rouge Rep. Bill Cassidy's challenge if Landrieu's seat would certainly be one of the "eight or nine key races" during the 2014 midterm elections.

"There is good news about next year because we're going to be plenty relevant because of the midterm elections and the fight for the U.S. Senate...We are absolutely a battleground state for that."